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The numbers for the top selling new vinyl records of 2009 out and they're very interesting. As a big Beatles fan I think it's pretty great that Abbey Road (which was released 40 years previous in 1969) was the top selling vinyl LP of the year with 34,800 sales. Abbey Road was also the second biggest seller on this same chart for 2008.
The second biggest seller was the vinyl version of Michael Jackson's 1982 album Thriller which sold just under 30,000 copies. Of course with MJ's death in June all things Michael Jackson were big sellers this year (he was easily the biggest selling artist of the year overall.)
You may be thinking that it's only older albums that are selling in the vinyl market, that it's a purely nostalgia driven thing but that's not the case. The #3 biggest seller was actually a 2009 release; Animal Collective's critically acclaimed Merriweather Post Pavilion, although it was substantially behind the best two sellers with a total of 14,000 sales.
Also the biggest selling vinyl artist overall was not The Beatles or Michael Jackson but instead Radiohead who sold over 45,000 copies of their albums in the vinyl format. The Beatles were second at 38,800 which raises the question: Why did the "Fab Four" only sell 4,000 copies of all of their other albums combined while Abbey Road sold 34,400? The answer is that Abbey Road is the only Beatles album currently in print in vinyl.
Many Beatles fans are hoping that changes in 2010 as there are rumors that the band's entire catalog will be rereleased in vinyl with the new pressings being based on the new 2009 remasters.
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